Our earnest efforts at achieving self-realization notwithstanding, most of us can tend to get wound pretty tight with the daily stress quotient the world doles out, and when this happens, , we might want to remember that keeping things in perspective should be a part of our personal development programs.

Advice which is easier to give than to take.

Some philosophical and/or spiritual systems such as Buddhism use comparisons to help show us how fleeting the external world and its stressors are.

Consider the Eight Similes of Illusion from the Prajnaparamita Sutras , as cited in Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, written by Lama Surya Das (1)

The Radiant Buddha said:
Regard the fleeting world like this:
Like stars fading and vanishing at dawn,
like bubbles on a fast-moving stream,
like morning dewdrops evaporating on blades
of grass,
like a candle flickering in a strong wind,
echoes, mirages, and phantoms, hallucinations,
and like a dream

A note from Wikipedia
“The word prajnaparamita combines the Sanskrit words prajna “wisdom” with paramita” perfection”. Prajnaparamita is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and is generally associated with the doctrine of emptiness (Shunyata) or ‘lack of Svabhava’ (essence) and the works of Nagarjuna. Its practice and understanding are taken to be indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva path.”

(1) Published by Broadway Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, New York, 1997